“Based on Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel of the same name, Fairouz’s four-movement piece features a powerful performance by the University of Kansas wind ensemble conducted by Paul W. Popiel of a composition that magnificently blends sharp commentary, satire, and deep-felt emotion over the course of 35 minutes. Beginning with a terrifyingly literal take on the event itself, Fariouz’s piece explores the complexities, contrasts, and contradictions of post 9-11 America, and further solidifies his reputation as one of the most exciting young composers in classical music today.”

“Mohammed Fairouz wrote Sumeida’s Song, a lushly scored chamber opera, when he was only 22. Its concerns with peace and communal healing place it in the humane tradition of such works as Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra and Don Carlos.”
—Marion Lignana Rosenberg, WQXR

“There’s an embarrassment of riches on Critical Models, the debut solo album by 20-something composer Mohammed Fairouz. And yet the chamber nature of the record’s six pieces lends an unshakable sense of intoxicating intimacy.” [full review]
—WQXR/Q2 Album of the Week

” Mohammed Fairouz alludes to Liberace and Tin Pan Alley in two of his three miniatures…Fairouz’s third miniature, “America never was America to me” reacts to the 50th anniversary of the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech filtered through the events of Trayvon Martin’s murder ” —Jay Batzner, Sequenza21

“This sixth of Fairouz’s series of piano miniatures is subtitled “Addio”. I include it here in tribute to all the farewells that are said, in all the journeys of exile.” —Lara Downes, Exiles Cafe Liner Notes

“Mohammed Fairouz’s ‘Refugee Blues’ is an arresting, self-contained melting pot: it begins with Middle Eastern modal writing and moves decisively into Western melody, with driven rhythms that convey the shape (metrically and emotionally) of that dark Auden poem.” —Allan Kozinn, The New York Times

“The Borromeo players achieve the special balancing act of patience and ferocity in Mohammed Fairouz’s Lamentation and Satire, an intensely felt score in which the instruments engage in compelling duos, a fugue of doleful urgency and a farewell utterly bereft of hope.” —Donald Rosenberg, Gramophone Magazine

“Mohammed Fairouz’s Bonsai Journal… It’s a technically difficult piece and the poetry seems deliberately separated from the music, as if the two are competing for air space, though there is an underlying dance. By including this piece by a ‘newer generation’ composer, we get a view into the world to come, which, as demonstrated here, seems serious, intense, complex.”
—David Wolman, Fanfare Magazine